Police back away in Bali drugs case

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Australian Federal Police will stop co-operating with Indonesians investigating the case of the Bali nine after all were charged with offences carrying the death penalty.

The prosecution cases were presented to the Denpasar District Court yesterday. Death sentences will be demanded in all seven trials, which will be separate and are due to begin in about three weeks.

Prosecutors were optimistic the nine would be convicted of the same central charge - the organised exportation of narcotics. Most have also been charged with possessing heroin.

An Australian Federal Police spokeswoman said "the environment has now changed … we can't provide assistance without the approval of the Attorney-General or the Justice Minister". Any request for police to testify at the trial would be referred to the Federal Government, she said.

A letter from Australian police tipping Indonesian authorities off about the smuggling forms part of the prosecution case, but it is unclear if any Australian agents will appear before the court.

Under police guidelines, co-operation with other countries stops once a charge carrying the death penalty has been laid.

Two of those arrested, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, are named in the court documents as organisers of an international smuggling syndicate.

Surveillance records of the nine - almost certainly provided by the Australian Federal Police - form part of the prosecution case, suggesting a greater level of involvement in the trafficking than previously acknowledged by at least one of the four alleged couriers arrested with eight kilograms of heroin strapped to their bodies.

The prosecution file says Chan text messaged Renae Lawrence on April 11 to tell her they had to delay the plan to leave for Australia "to wait for more heroin from Cerry [a Thai dealer said to have delivered a suitcase of heroin to Chan three days earlier]".

After Cerry delivered a second suitcase of heroin the next day, the plan went ahead, the prosecution says, with statues and jewellery placed in the four couriers' suitcases to divert attention from heroin on their bodies.

Chan paid Lawrence $2080 for transportation and accommodation in Bali at a meeting at a Sydney shopping centre on March 30, the prosecution alleges. A week later, in a Kentucky Fried Chicken parking lot, Sukumaran had given Lawrence another $500 and a mobile phone.

On April 5 most of the nine had been given $3000 each for travel and accommodation before flying to Bali the next day. The four alleged couriers had said they were to receive $10,000 on returning home. Most, including Lawrence, are said to have claimed they did not know what they were smuggling until their return flight and only went ahead because their families were threatened.

The prosecution files say Chan and Sukumaran instructed the others and planted the heroin on their bodies. Chan's prosecutor, Wayan Suwila, said "of course, I am optimistic [that the primary charges will be proven]".

Haposan Sihombing, a lawyer for Lawrence, said he wanted the primary charge of exporting heroin dropped. It carries the penalty of execution by firing squad. Instead, he hopes the pair will only face the lesser charge of possessing heroin.